Cricket 2023: No Australians make the ICC T20 team of the year

A lackluster performance at the T20 World Cup exposed worrying signs for Australia’s men in the shortest form of the game and that has been highlighted in the ICC team of the year.

The fuse has been lit for an explosive Ashes series, with Pat Cummins snubbed for Ben Stokes as captain in the ICC’s Test team of the year.

Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cummins and Nathan Lyon were all chosen in the world XI, with Australia the most heavily represented team a reflection of their dominance as Test cricket’s No. 1 side.

However, it wasn’t enough to win Cummins’ captaincy of the team of the year, with a panel of media representatives instead backing in England skipper and ‘BazBall’ spearhead, Stokes.

It sets up an enthralling Ashes battle this year, with two pre-eminent captains set to battle it out for cricket’s ultimate prize in June and July.

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, along with Usman Khawaja were named in the ICC Test team of the year. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

England are convinced Stokes has changed Test cricket forever with his cavalier captaincy style.

But Cummins has refused to be intimidated into following England’s example, and has maintained that Australia’s more suffocating style has proven effective and will stand-up when it matters.

Three Englishmen in Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and 40-year-old James Anderson made the team of the year, with England’s resurgence in 2022 making them the second most heavily represented team.

India (Rishabh Pant), West Indies (Kraigg Brathwaite), Pakistan (Babar Azam) and South Africa (Kagiso Rabada) were all represented by one player each.

Four players in the Test team of the year is Australia’s highest representation for some time.

Khawaja and Labuschagne dominated the run-scoring lists, while spinner Lyon was the joint equal wicket-taker in Test cricket for 2022 alongside Rabada.

Cummins has been excellent with the ball and also led Australia to a historic Test victory over Pakistan in Pakistan – a feat replicated by Stokes later in the year.

Australia had Travis Head and Adam Zampa as its sole representatives in the ODI team of the year, while there wasn’t an Aussie in sight in the men’s T20 team of the year after Aaron Finch’s team’s lacklustre performance at the home World Cup.

Somehow only two Australians were chosen in the women’s ODI team of the year, despite Australia winning the World Cup last year.

Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy were selected, but inexplicably the world’s most dominant sporting side couldn’t get another player in the XI.

Alyssa Healy along with Beth Mooney were the only Australians in the ICC ODI team of the year. Picture: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images

Mooney now holds serious claim to be the No. 1 player in women’s cricket, having also been named in the women’s T20 team of the year alongside Ash Gardner and Tahlia McGrath.

Originally published as Cricket 2023: No Australians make the ICC T20 team of the year